Tuesday, December 27, 2011

Pick the Right Weight Loss Plan for You


Different plans address different problems.  If you’re a junk food junkie, South Beach might be great, because it forces you to cook a bunch of fresh foods.  If you’re a carb addict, Atkins would force you to let that go for a while.  If you’re too busy to prepare food, a meal replacement plan could be your friend.  If you’re any sort of an emotional/stress/compulsive/bored eater, Medifast is great because everything is limited, even celery—there is nothing whatsoever that you’re allowed to binge on.
There are countless diets available.  I got lucky when I chose Medifast.  My selection process went like this:  I’ve done South Beach and loved it, but I’m too busy to cook that much. What else is out there?  Oh, I have a friend who’s lost about a hundred pounds, ask her what she did.  Medifast?  Oh look, packets!  Neat.  Sign me up.

I did not know at the time what it would force me to learn about myself.  I didn’t realize how the structure and strictness of it would change me.  As an emotional eater, I ate to feel full.  When I was very full, I would feel calm and safe.  Guess what?  My food plan did not allow me to eat a large pile of anything.  Everything was weighed, measured, counted, and limited.  This pushed me to a greater awareness of how often I abused food, and forced me to develop other coping skills.
Thank God.

So what are your weaknesses?  How have you failed before? 
– Do you like to “game” things, fiddle the diet around so you can still eat a plate of brownies?  Maybe a points system is not right for you. 
– Do you skip meals, get too hungry, and then overeat?  Maybe you need something structured that requires many small meals each day. 
– Do you pretend you’re on plan when you aren’t, and fall off the wagon when you’re on your own?  Maybe you need something with weekly in-person weigh-ins and meetings to keep you accountable. 
– Are your taste buds over-excited and requiring massive fat/sugar/salt doses?  Maybe a meal-replacement plan would let you calm them down.
– Are you a compulsive overeater?  Maybe a 12-step program would be a good place to start.

There is no one diet that’s going to work for everyone.  Think about what you need to learn, and pick a plan that will teach you that.  If you get partway in and discover you’re failing, reassess.  Did you pick the wrong plan?  Or are you ducking the hard lessons the plan you’re on is trying to teach you?

9 comments:

  1. It took me about a year to seriously decide on a diet, and I looked at a lot of them. I knew I was in for the long haul, and I thought it might be a wise to pick a diet that would be close to how I would eat for the rest of my life (Now I'm not convinced that is not necessary, but we learn).

    I'm a fastidious with data and measurement, enjoy cooking, and thrive on social contact. I also found the very thought of fake food/diet food/food replacement to be depressing and repulsive (this view has also changed somewhat--food is simply not as important to me now, gratefully).

    So Weight Watchers was a pretty obvious, and for me, sound choice. It worked, and did teach me to cook and shop differently, and keep in mind a mental checklist on what I eat throughout the day, and to plan, plan, plan. I had thought that it would be a plan I would follow into maintenance, but I've since moved on to my own thing.

    It's all a learning game. We learn what works for us, what doesn't. Some things can change over time.

    Here are three completely unexpected things I've learned (two just in the last year):
    I want and need a lot of exercise.
    Eating bread and bread products leads me to a loss of control.
    I can actually eat a lot of nuts with impunity.

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